New easement street opens between Mission Street and East Campus Drive in Mt. Pleasant

The first cross street of Mt. Pleasant’s Mission Street grid project has been completed in time for Central Michigan University’s fall semester.

The cross street, which connects Mission Street and East Campus Drive between Sherwin Williams and Papa John’s, was finished within a week, Bill Mrdeza, director of community services and economic development, said.

“It was actually much quicker than we were expecting,” he said. “So that was a very pleasant surprise.”

While a final project cost still had not been closed out, Mrdeza said the project came in under the $169,000 that was bid out for construction.

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Mrdeza said the city had communicated with CMU to ensure the east end of the project, closest to campus, would be finished before school started so as to cause minimal traffic disruptions.

Nearby property owners were very cooperative throughout the project, he said.

While the basic construction is finished, Mrdeza said the finished street still needs cleaning, signage and painting.

The city will soon realign the west end of Fairfield Drive, across Mission, to line it up with the new easement.

“That’ll be the next project that’ll be bid out, and hopefully done in the next month,” Mrdeza said.

The new easement will likely be called Fairfield Drive as well, since it is an extension of an existing road, Mrdeza said.

Following the Fairfield Drive extension project, the city will continue to look for its next location for new a connecting and grid street along Mission Street as opportunities and finances become available.

“We’ve had some discussion with CMU in terms of where that location might be,” Mrdeza said.

Mrdeza said he did not think the Mt. Pleasant population would have problems adapting to the Fairfield Drive extension.

The new cross street will make Papa John’s carry out service even easier, he said, as drivers no longer have to use Mission Street to access campus.

Additionally, he said, the cross connector will alleviate some everyday Mission Street traffic.

The city began planning the project back in May when it began designing the Fairfield Drive extension.

Randi Shaffer is a reporter at the Morning Sun. She can be reached at 989-779-6059, rshaffer@michigannewspapers.com or on Twitter at @RandiMShaffer.